Projects
Examining Reaction Networks used in Convection Models in Helium Shells of Sub-Chandrasehkar White Dwarfs
This project simulates the explosion of a dense white dwarf star. In the model, a helium layer surrounds the star. Initial ignition of the helium layer can cause the helium, then the star itself, to burn and explode as a type of supernova. Computer simulations of this phenomemon, by necessity, ignore elements or chemical reactions, in order to simplify the problem enough to be tractable. In this work, I explore the sensitivity of the explosion to such modifications by comparing complicated simulations with their simpler counterparts.
Properties of Gamma-ray Pulsars from the Large Area Telescope
Modern telescopes, like the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), have a sensitivity threshold below which individual point sources cannot be distinguished from background diffuse emission (opens new window). Instead, data about these point sources can be inferred from a model of the detectable point sources. In this project, I adjust a model for gamma-ray pulsars (opens new window). By comparing the model to LAT's recent catalog (opens new window), I identified details about pulsars' luminosity and density in space that best fit the data, then extrapolated to estimate the number of undetected pulsars below the sensitivity threshold.